Arbabi Imagery | Sean Arbabi photography

12/28/2024

Winter leaf vignettes, Lafayette CA
(taken a few minutes apart using my iPhone).
© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

12/24/2024

Fall leaves 2024, found on neighborhood walks near my home, along paved trails, in gutters, on sidewalks, covering drains. All shot with an iPhone.

I love the beauty of their colors, geometry, uniqueness, intricacies. They are tiny missed opportunities. Hidden gems of daily beauty by the many that stroll by yet rarely notice.
© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

12/17/2024

My latest VeryBusy article on post production’s challenge of Creating a "Retouching Playbook" for Creative Consistency:

Learn how to create a comprehensive retouching playbook that drives creative consistency. Explore tips on process documentation, team collaboration, and quality control to streamline workflows, reduce revisions, and deliver high-quality results across all projects

12/04/2024

I wrote a few pieces for the fine folks at VeryBusy (great post production software).

With a career based in photography, digital production, visual content, whatever we call it today, I love dissecting the parts of our creative teams and industry to find successful paths for everyone involved. It's about formulas that work over and over, yet avoiding complacency, combining that approach with new methods and ways of thinking.

Here's the first piece: Managing Retouching In High-Volume Content Production

Digital production expert Sean Arbabi shares strategies for managing high-volume retouching teams, balancing quality with efficiency through strong team dynamics, streamlined workflows, and clear performance metrics for success in ecommerce and editorial content.

10/19/2024

Sharing images from Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons (with a few remote Wyoming shots mixed in) captured on assignment years ago. Such a wonderful area filled with zen moments and surprises around every corner (including Medicine Bow's town drunk providing a little gem by photobombing my shot).

When you're on assignment, you plan out your days yet often come across unplanned moments, or impromptu ideas that end up being the best shots of your trip. It's part weeks of organization and pre-planning combined with on-site gut feelings. You address your client's main focus and requirements, and add in the various photographic spices that create the visual dish.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

10/02/2024

USA: Florida: Collier County: The Ochopee Post Office at dusk. The smallest operating post office in the United States measuring a mere 61 square feet (5.7 m2), it's basically a tiny shed on U.S. Route 41 in Collier County near Ochopee.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

09/28/2024

The Florida Keys in all its charm, beauty, lifestyle, and wildness.
© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

09/27/2024

Olmsted Point to Tenaya Canyon backpack trip a few Octobers ago- sunrises, sunsets, starry nights, granite cirques, arêtes, extraordinary views.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

09/24/2024

The stunning view years ago atop Cloud's Rest.

USA: California: Sierra Nevada: Yosemite National Park: Atop the granite peak of Cloud's Rest (9931 feet) backpackers rest, eat, and hydrate as they take in dramatic Western views overlooking Half Dome (L), Yosemite Valley (C), El Capitan, and North Dome (R) in the distance.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

09/22/2024

Landscapes and vignettes at Polly Dome Lakes.

These small alpine lakes rest at 8800 feet elevation just north of Polly Dome, a granite peak overlooking Tenaya Lake. A wonderful little few miles along a trail, west of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite’s high country.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

09/09/2024

River details, from Montana to California.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

09/08/2024

Always come back to your non-selects. The images you didn't chose to process and edit first. There's so much you see sometimes that some of the simpler-looking images at first look aren't your immediate choices, but they often do have impact.

Yosemite Falls from Cook's Meadow in Yosemite Valley, the May snowmelt blasting over it's towering cliff, visitors vehicles lined along the road below the towering falls.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide) Yosemite National Park

09/07/2024

Fun shoot back in the day:

Heather Fuhr (L), Wendy Ingraham (C), Lori Bowden (R) posing for the cover of Competitor magazine (using bike cranks as microphones).

Triathletes and Hall of Famers, having won numerous IronMan races, these ladies were known as the "Spice Girls" of triathlons.

(shot in a San Francisco studio using cross-processed film)

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

08/31/2024

An oldie but goodie, shot 37 years ago, with a poignant story behind it. A significant moment that has little to do with the image's content, and more so with the confidence it brought.

At 17, I discovered the first parts of how my artist mind worked, partially from reading the book "Mountain Light" by Galen Rowell. Having grown up in my home town, Galen was an incredible outdoor photographer, a local celebrity of sorts as a National Geographic shooter as well for his prowess on mountain expeditions around the globe. He lead an amazing life and was living my dream.

After admiring his work for a couple of year, in 1987 I signed up for one of his East Bay workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of 19. When the day came, I was the youngest by far in his workshop, my only hopes to somehow show Galen I had an eye for photography. To impress one of my heroes.

The first day, after he lectured a few hours, we set off into the Berkeley hills on assignment. The plan was to capture sunset in Tilden Park, provide our rolls of film to Galen's staff for processing, to then review and edit our images the following morning. We were asked to share five photos to be critiqued, the first being what Galen called "personal vision".

Once all the slides were loaded into the projector, Galen began to share each student's work. He asked us to comment first on each person's "personal vision", then chimed in to share his thoughts. The goal was to figure out what the photographer was aiming for, what message they were attempting to convey. As each student’s first image shone on screen, most guessed incorrectly about the photographer’s inspiration. This gave Galen the opportunity to explain why, whether it was the lack of composition or exposure, if the light wasn’t right, or if the subject matter wasn’t connecting with the audience.

As I sat there nervously waiting for my slides to receive their turn, I soaked up everything he spoke about. I began to second guess if my “personal vision” shot was the best one, or if I should’ve chosen another. Then came the familiarity of my photo as it popped onto the screen.

This shot.

Before anyone could speak, Galen blurted out “Wow, now that’s personal vision!” He excitedly began to talk about the structure of the scene, yet I can’t recall any of the words he shared. I was simply melting in my seat, elated my image had connected with him. After catching himself breaking his own rule not to speak first, he turned to ask whose image this belonged to. I bashfully raised my hand noticing the looks from participants twice my age or older. Yet, the true moment of epiphany was that his words were an acknowledgment I might just be able to do this for a living. I may have what it takes to become a photographer, to have a life like his, as long as I put in the effort, the years, the blood, sweat and tears.

Today, looking back on a photographic career I’m very honored to have, I can honestly say this moment was a personal revelation of my artistic path. I'm much prouder of other images I've produced since, yet this was a part of my beginning.

Sometimes a person can share a few kind words, helping another create a life they long for. This was what Galen’s words did for me. Sadly he and his wife Barbara perished in a plane accident in 2002, however his legacy, his images, his words live on.

© Sean Arbabi | seanarbabi.com (all rights reserved worldwide)

07/27/2024

Great words from one of my favorites, who isn’t thought of as being an artist, but boy does he get it when it comes to what artists do…..

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1636401453870322?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&fs=e&mibextid=0VwfS7&fs=e&s=TIeQ9V